Harvesting the Cranberry Hibiscus

     Earlier this spring my mother found these young plants at a garage sale, and they must have been priced well because she picked up one for me. It turned out the bargain annual happened to be the interesting and beautiful Hibiscus sabdariffa mentioned on the Florida Survival Gardening blog by David. No doubt the original seeds were from ECHO, as my mother lives not too far from there.

     I had no idea this plant could be so beautiful, unusual, useful, pest free, maintenance free...

     Today I am going to harvest the fruit. According to David, the round green bits are not the delicious part, but are where the seeds are stored. It's the red wrappers (or calyx) around the  round green fruit that is used for cooking and eating. This year recouping seeds is a high priority, since this is the only plant that I can source, and likely the only cranberry hibiscus growing in my county. It would be amazing to grow about 10 of these next year, as they like full sun. They do visibly wilt if you neglect to ensure hydration, but bounce back very easily and quickly. (I must have wilted it at least 5 times during the hot part of the summer.) Never would a tomato be this resilient.


       The leaves are edible, and I can tell you that the rabbits eat these leaves even before they eat their normal favorite weeds, Spanish Needle (Bidens alba). Although Hibiscus sabdariffa is tasty, none of the plants in the mallow family, or rose family, are particularly high in nitrogen (protein about 2 1/2%) - a consideration for overall rabbit dietary needs. I did eat a few of the leaves, which were very mild but did have a pretty tasty flavor, much better than Bidens, which is tart. These leaves would be good in a salad or on a sandwich (which is probably what I will be doing since the cold weather is here.)

     The seeds are higher in protein and very high in omega 6 fatty acids, and in quantity are valued as animal feed, particularly for chickens.

     This is the first and largest of probably two harvests from my one plant.

Tips for Making Yogurt at Home

 - Making yogurt at home is a great way to use up fresh milk that is about to expire or has just expired but has not yet developed a rancid odor.
 - Make sure the starter culture of yogurt has active cultures. Many store brands are pasteurized and contain no living bacteria. Plain or vanilla is the best choice.
 - Heating the milk to boiling or near-boiling ensures that the yogurt is creamy and thick.
 - Taking the lid off your pot when heating the milk lets some of the water evaporate, making the yogurt thicker.
 - While waiting for your milk to cool, move the pan off the hot burner. That may seem stupid and obvious, but can be easily forgotten if you get busy.
 - While waiting for your milk to cool, double check to make sure your jars are completely clean.
 - The milk is cool enough when you can put your fingers in it comfortably, however, I am lazy and don't want to contaminate the yogurt, so I just let it cool to room temperature.
 - The bacteria die at 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The optimum range is 90 to 110 Fahrenheit. Below 90, other kinds of bacteria may take over and spoil your batch.
 - If you are making a big batch in the oven, you will have to use a thermometer to be sure you are obtaining optimal temperatures. The standard "Warm" setting on most ovens is too hot for the bacteria, but it could easily be manually modulated to maintain the optimum range.

 - The easiest way to make small amounts is to use a yogurt maker, which is really a small kitchen appliance that keeps your milk and culture mixture at the optimum temperature. Other options include using camping coolers and hot water bottles to keep your yogurt at the desired temperatures. Any insulated container will work, including a solar oven in the shade (keep an eye on temperatures).
 - About 8 hours is the general rule, but I have found 7 hours works nicely, and the yogurt will finish fermenting in the refrigerator. However, the time is all relative, the yogurt is done when it develops a whey layer and tastes "tangy" as opposed to the sweetness of the original milk.
 - You can freeze extra yogurt, and the cultures will remain active when defrosted, if diminished somewhat.
 - The strange clear layer that forms is visual indication that your culture was active enough to make yogurt. It is called whey, and it contains active cultures also.
 - The whey can be drained off to make Greek-style yogurt. It is very high in protein (after all, it's what they make protein powder from), and can be added to soups, smoothies, ice cream, dog and cat food, and any number of other foods to add nutrition.
 - Homemade yogurt is really great for baking, frozen yogurt, and smoothies. A dash of sugar, jelly, or mixing with fresh fruit makes it great for a snack.
 - A big jar of fresh, homemade yogurt makes a great gift.

Rice WIne Recipes

Author Unknown Fast
Rice Wine Recipe

3 lbs white rice (not instant)
1 lg box white raisins (15 oz)
1 box dark raisins (15 0z)
2 tablespoons yeast
5 lb sugar
3 large peeled oranges or dates, quartered
6 qt water

     Thoroughly mix all the ingredients in a large 5 gallon bucket. Stir every day, keeping the lid on between stirrings. After about 20 days, rack to bottles. About 10 days later, after the yeast has settled, rack to clean bottles and serve.

Longshen Rice Terraces, China

Jack Keller's Rice Wine Recipe

2 lbs long grain brown rice
2 lbs granulated sugar
1 lb chopped golden raisins
7-1/2 pts water
4 tsp acid blend
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp tannin
1 crushed Campden tablet
Champagne or Sherry wine yeast

     Rinse the rice well, then put in glass bowl with just enough water to cover rice. Chop the raisins and add to rice, adding enough water to cover them, too (1 quart total). Soak overnight or 12 hours. Pour rice and raisins into a nylon straining bag, saving the soaking water. Put sugar in remaining water in large pot and put this on to boil. Bring to boil and remove from heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Put nylon straining bag in primary and pour in soaking water. Add acid blend, yeast nutrient and tannin. Pour sugar water over this and stir. Cover with clean cloth and set aside to coll. When at room temperature, add crushed Campden tablet and stir again. Recover primary and let set 24 hours. Add wine yeast and recover. Stir daily for two weeks. Remove bag and let it drip drain (do not squeeze) into primary. Recover primary and let wine settle overnight. Rack into secondary and fit airlock. Rack after 3 months, top up and refit airlock. Repeat 3 months later. When wine is clear, stabilize, wait 10 days and rack into bottles.

Crock Pot Bread Pudding

     Bread pudding is one of the easiest desserts to cook, and one of the best ways to use up bread that is stale or unappetizing. A good recipe to try if a batch of homemade bread came out a bit disappointing. A great way to get rid of leftover cornbread pancakes that the kids weren't about to eat, days later.
     This is another recipe that powdered or condensed milk can be substituted for fresh. I'll have to try homemade yogurt sometime. That means the only fresh ingredients you really need are eggs and butter.
Just throw everything but the bread in the slow cooker, then stir. Add the bread, re-stir. Cover and cook on low for three hours.

8 cups cubed bread, pancake, stale hot dog buns...
1 cup raisins, craisins, or other small, dehydrated fruit
2 cups milk
4 eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg or clove
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon or cardamom

Knotty Pots Method for Making Pots

     I don't really recommend using heavy planters in hanging baskets. After all, this is Florida, and we are known for having high winds during the rainy season.
     However, I am all for using your own creativity to beautify your house and home. This is the tutorial from the original Knotty Pots book for making planters from molding plaster, which is probably plaster of paris. She has some recommendations for adding simple textures, painting, and sealing the planters.
     The third image has her advice for making beads from the same plaster.
     I have no personal experience with molding plaster planters, but there is a lot of information on the internet about molding hypertufa, which would be much lighter (and more fragile) for a hanging planter. Perhaps smaller, thicker plaster planters would be more sturdy.
     Make sure you read my disclaimer about these images before you start, here. These images are provided for informational purposes only, and I am not profiting from them in any way.

Knotting To It

      In order to learn to macrame, one must first master a few basic knots. Really though, if you can tie your shoes then you can do macrame. The basic granny knot is the most frequently used knot in macrame, as it is the first half of the square knot. The second half of the square knot is another granny knot, just reversed. Since square knots make up most macrame, learning that one mode will get you pretty far.
     From the left are a few more explanations of knots that might help you do some macrame,or it might drive you crazy from its complication. As with gardening, cooking, and any other pastime, you can make macrame as complicated or as simple as you wish. People have been making knots since they began working with textiles, so there are some great historical pieces of remarkable complexity out there.
     Please see my discussion on these images here. I am in no way making a profit by displaying these out-of-print images.

Vitamin C Tisane/Infusion Recipes

Dried Hibiscus Flowers 

     Be aware that boiling the plants for 20 minutes reduces available ascorbic acid by at least 20%. Perhaps making sun tea/solar tea or steeping overnight might be a better method.

High-C Tisane (Homemade Red Zinger Tea)

Dried hibiscus, lemongrass, orange peel, peppermint, and rose hips
Boiling water
1 . Steep herbs for ten minutes
2. Drink as a vitamin C boost.

Pine Needle tisane

Dried pine needles
Boiling water
1 . Steep herbs for ten minutes
2. Drink as a vitamin C boost.

Celestial Seasoning's Red Zinger

Mint tisane

Your choice of mint or balm
Boiling water
1 . Steep herbs for ten minutes
2. Drink as a vitamin C boost.

Fresh Flowers, Water. Let chill overnight. Enjoy!

Raw Milk Debate

Milk: We Give It to Our Kids

     The raw milk debate continues to divide people that really believe in the same things and want the same goals from their foods. Who can say that they do not want the best nutrition for their children? Who can say that they want their children to eat unsafe foods? Who can say that the government always knows best?
     And is it right that WIC program encourages pregnant women and children to drink large amounts of cows milk in exception from other great sources of calcium and protein like almond milk or fortified orange juice?
     When my grandfather was a young man he and his wife moved out of the city to some acreage and started a dairy farm. For a self-taught farmer, they did very well, helping to pioneer a program to increase milk production during the war time. But one winter he was laid up in bed for weeks, maybe more than a month, due to Undulant Fever (Brucellosis).
     It is a disease that is almost unheard of now due to the rampant pasteurizing of all dairy products. Brucellosis is caused by a bacteria that is passed from infected cows to humans through milk. No amount of teat disinfection prevents this, the cow is actually carrying the bacteria inside of her. The United States government requires all dairy cows to be vaccinated, but we are not free of this pathogen as Canada claims to be. The infected milk looks exactly like regular milk, cows have no visible signs of the pathogen.
     People used to die from this disease in the days before antibiotics and vaccines. If we didn't have the bovine vaccine, we would probably be dealing with another antibiotic resistant superbug. Even with pasteurizing, people still can't be trusted to keep themselves from getting sick by avoiding "spoiled" milk products. Nationwide the leading cause of all food poisoning is unsanitary food preparation procedures in homes.

    If I can buy raw meat, which very likely contains E.coli and Salmonella, then why can't I buy raw milk, and be trusted to pasteurize it myself? I probably would not frequently buy raw milk, because of the inconvenience factor if the prices were similar. I find it apalling that all milk is homogenized and all the really healthy parts of the milk are removed, then sold back to me as very expensive butter and cheese. I might want to make my own butter! I can imagine a countertop butter making machine the size of a coffee maker looking great in my kitchen. Here's an industry idea for someone to invent and mass produce. Insert raw ingredients, let machine process, take out butter, then clean! Like an ice cream maker or a bead maker. But the first part is getting rid of the homogenization. Percentages don't need to be on kids food. In fact, if packages are too complicated then that food probably shouldn't be eaten at all (the easy way to tell if food is healthy or not).
     Another statistic that frequently goes unreported is the plain-old, everyday food poisoning that is caused by raw milk. Campylobacter, Salmonella, and E. coli are frequently found in raw milk, some with devastating consequences for children, including Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (kidney failure) in children. Read a bit more about it here.

Fats Villainized

     Fat, whether eaten or trimmed, frequently gets blamed for making Americans a country of large waist proportions.

     One potential cause of fat villainy is displaced anger against sugar. A study's highlights here show that sugar is just as damaging if not moreso than dietary fat intake, and that the brain gets pleasure from consuming sugar just as much as fat.

     Trimmed fat has many uses, not excluding soap making. A really interesting chemistry read of how fats become saponified can be found here. Soap made from animal and vegetable fats contains glycerine, a natural moisturizer, where commercial soaps lack this valuable by-product. The glycerine is removed via a chemical process, and sold to be used for , but since glycerol is a by-product of manufacturing biodiesel, it isn't worth as much as it used to be. The glycerin-devoid soap is milled, or ground down, and rebatched into what we call bar soap.


     There is quite a bit of research that shows that people can't survive without dietary fats. Most people are familiar with the concept of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids being good for us. Other fats are necessary as well, as this post I wrote a while back demonstrates. Indeed, too much protein with too little fat has been known to cause a dietary phenomenon called Rabbit Starvation, sometimes known as protein poisoning. It happens in the absence of carbohydrates and fat, as the name implies. The liver can't effectively metabolize the high amounts of protein, and the kidneys are inefficient when blood urea levels are that high. Death soon results. The prevention? Eat a wide variety of foods, including natural carbohydrates and fats.

     In summation, blaming carbon molecules for poor life choices is like blaming guns because psychopaths use them.

Turk's Cap Hibiscus, Malvaviscus penduliflorus, Sleepy Mallow, Mazapan

Uses: Edible, Xeriscaping, Forage, Medicinal. Native to: Mexico.
     This is another great plant that looks beautiful and blooms for most of the year. It's a great candidate for turf replacement, since it is very well-behaved once established. The bright red flowers attract pollinators including butterflies and hummingbirds.
     Perhaps one of the best things about Turk's Cap Hibiscus is that the leaves and flowers are edible, like all members of the mallow family. Wikipedia says, "Certain species of hibiscus are also beginning to be used more widely as a natural source of food coloring (E163), and replacement of Red #3 / E127." I have used it to color handmade soap, by making a tea for the water portion of my recipe, coloring the soap a pinkish hue.
     Have you ever had Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger tisane? According to their website, Hibiscus flower is their main ingredient. And after reading that list, doesn't it sounds pretty simple to make a version at home?

     Hibiscus flowers are known to be medicinal. They contain vitamin C and other vitamins and minerals. A study in 2008 found that it can lower blood pressure in mild cases. The flowers contain anthocyanins, acting as natural ACE inhibitors. This study reveals hibiscus' strong link to lessening the effects of metabolic syndrome. With a bit of looking, much more research can be found regarding the downward blood cholesterol effects of hibiscus. Some people are convinced the properties mentioned above can help them to lose weight.